Craving, binges and Diet?

chism21 wrote: »

Since I started logging my food the first of the month, I lost 18 pounds.however this last week I've been going off; crazy with my intake. Endless craving binging on stuff I know don't even taste good to me right now. I feel a void and It feels like I need food but it does not work. I think I need some better recipes of food that will fill me up without the calories. Need advice ASAP

@chism21 I did that many times over a period of 40 years and it almost totally wrecked my health. Cravings are NOT normal and until I found a macro where I had ZERO physical cravings my weight went like a yo yo.

https://google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=foods%20that%20can%20kill%20cravings

Above is just a Google search on "foods that can kill cravings" so you can take it from there to find a macro that may cut out your physical cravings. I still can have mental cravings but it is one the physical cravings that are not humanly easy to fight like when trying to stop smoking.

Remember you have to find a macro that stops cravings because cutting calories can only make them worse by binging. People who do not have cravings can just cut calories OK.

@galehawkins: what is your macro pattern that has helped?...I struggle with cravings as well. On low carb I crave carbs..on lowfat I crave fat..just want to stay in caloric deficit without being miserable.

@galehawkins..thank you..very helpful info

GaleHawkins wrote: »

mamafazz wrote: »

@galehawkins: what is your macro pattern that has helped?...I struggle with cravings as well. On low carb I crave carbs..on lowfat I crave fat..just want to stay in caloric deficit without being miserable.

@mamafazz first of all there are 'mental' only in our head cravings and there are 'physical' cravings for carbs, protein or fats. In my case I expect many of the billions of critters living in my digestive track was made up of the bad types rather than the good types since my cravings were only for carbs. The bad guys crave glucose most often as I see it. While they can get some glucose from protein but none for fats they signal the brain to crave fast carb foods in my simple view.

Medically we know if cravings are not stopped a caloric deficit can set many of us for a 100%+ regain down the road especially if we used exercise to lose fat when we tire from using willpower to fight off cravings.

After 40 years of serious joint and muscle pain and yo yoing weight I decided to test cutting my carbs to <50 grams daily. In just 30 days my pain was managed without meds for the first time in 40 years. 40 years of serious IBS resolved six months later and is still gone a year after that.

5% carbs, 15% protein and 80% fats has been my macro for the past 1.5 years and resulting in improved health and blood markers, weight loss that has been maintained for a year while I stuffed my face with my macro.

Others may report the same results with very different macros. We are all different. Remember I was 63 (currently 65) and in very bad health rushing towards a premature death before I finally got myself off of sugar and all forms of grain as a elimination test. Yes I did read medical studies that supported my 5/15/80 macro as being safe for the rest of my life. I have earned an OD degree and my wife is a pharmacist so we can read and understand medical research and understand not to just take it at face value. Most all medical research can be misleading at one level or another. All social media medical info/advice should ONLY be used as a starting point to do personal research and NEVER to be acted upon at face value. What may be good for one may kill another.

Remember we do not become obese like I was unless we are physically sick/unhealthy from some cause. My health had to start to improve before my health markers could improve.

Best of luck in finding the macro that works for you. I had to finally get aggressive because the doctors wanted me to start on Enbrel injections for pain management in just 30 days. I had tried tapering off of 60 days and was a total failure. Going cold turkey was very hellish the first two weeks then my brain stopped sending out craving messages. The first 90 days was weird with a steep learning curve and somewhat weird for the next 90 days.

I'm glad I ran across this. I have been experimenting with a higher fat diet myself. I have been known to binge, and I knew that this was something that I could change, so I began to study different diets. I am currently reading the book "eat fat, get thin" that's on the nyt best seller list. For the past few days I have had no cravings or really even that much hunger. I have had a lot of energy and alertness. I will say that it's a little scary to dive into something that I don't truly understand yet, but it really seems to be working. So for now let's eat avocados, walnuts, olive oil, and butter!
And I admit this is still a little scary for me. But I want to stay this path for a while to see if it will benefit my health.

Thank you very much @GaleHawkins . I'll definitely join the group and check out the other information you've provided.

FindingAmy77 wrote: »

I have had the same problems before. Preplanning what you eat, pre portioning out all packaged foods as much as you can, drink more water and last but not least exercise more so you can eat more. Also get rid of what is in your house that is a trigger food and add in more fiber and protein in your diet with meats and vegies and oatmeal, etc. those are your biggest three friends when eating at a deficit. They help keep you fuller and for longer.

Man that sounds like a lot of work. Why not just kill your cravings then there will be no trigger foods in the house? With 17 year olds in my house the trigger foods set on the same table I eat at. After two weeks of not eating ANY trigger foods (things containing sugars or any form of grains) the cravings just faded away so effectively there were no trigger foods in the house in my case.

chism21 wrote: »

Thank you all for your comment I would take the time to take them under consideration. @GaleHawkins I know this might not be your plan but you seem to be following a plan similar to the Atkins diet in which you restrict the amount of carbohydrates you consume per day.

@chism21 I do not know Atkins but I have been told this is the same as the first phase of the Atkins diet. Dr. Jay Wortman, M.D. states the same in his interview near the bottom of the article below.
dietdoctor.com/diabetes

Eating <50 grams of carbs daily tiggers also Chaperone Mediated Autophagy which is to enhance our health and lifespan per some.

queenliz99 wrote: »

GaleHawkins wrote: »

chism21 wrote: »

Thank you all for your comment I would take the time to take them under consideration. @GaleHawkins I know this might not be your plan but you seem to be following a plan similar to the Atkins diet in which you restrict the amount of carbohydrates you consume per day.

@chism21 I do not know Atkins but I have been told this is the same as the first phase of the Atkins diet. Dr. Jay Wortman, M.D. states the same in his interview near the bottom of the article below.
dietdoctor.com/diabetes

Eating <50 grams of carbs daily tiggers also Chaperone Mediated Autophagy which is to enhance our health and lifespan per some.

What is, in plain words for me, Chaperone Mediated Autophagy? I looked it up and did not understand it.

@queenliz99 I have spent a couple hours looking for a paper in layman terms and still have not found one and time is getting late and I need to get out of the office but I will take a stab at explaining it.

As we age more and more protein fragments and other toxic matter build up in the cells. Nutritional ketosis is triggered when we eat <50 grams of carbs daily for weeks/months/years at a time. The state is muscle/lean tissue sparing because it triggers CMA which means junk protein inside our cells get consumed in the process instead of our muscle mass.

This is why some research shows living mainly on fats instead of carbs when losing weight means we will lose mainly fat and limited muscle loss.

While on a LCHF Way of Eating when the carbs are <50 grams a day it is the same to the body as true starvation so CMA is triggered and it starts recycling junk protein frags from the cells back into the bloodstream to sustain life and protect the heart and other muscles so the the starving hunter will have the energy and muscles needed to chase animals for food the next day or to walk to a location and gather some form of food to take back to the tribe. This guy may not have eaten in two weeks.

Low Carb High Fat is NOT a weight loss system per se but a way to recover health and live longer per years of research findings.

It just enables most of the body to function on ketones vs. glucose. A person with congestive heart failure will pump about 20% more blood when fueled by ketone bodies vs glucose so I am sure you understand the value of that. The brain can function better on ketones especially if suffering from Alzheimer's but some parts will need glucose but that will come in part from scraps of intracellular protein that CMA moves through the cell walls and dumps it into the bloodstream for energy.

Had I known about this for my Dad he could perhaps had lived longer with his CHF and delayed the development of Alzheimer's as well because CMA can help remove brain plaque caused by Alzheimer's per some research.

Hopeful this helps enough so your can fine tune your research about CMA and why it is key to health and life. It is not a superficial subject but goes to the roots of the evolution of higher animals like the primates. Understandings where CMA helps prevent or help causes cancer is my main interest at this point in time. Yes CICO is out there but it is what that goes on between CI and CO that is unknown by most today. CMA is one of those things that are between CI and CO. The scrap protein and stored fat used by the body is a factor that we can not compute by counting calories in or calories out.

It is the unknowns that impact health and longevity that interests me today at the age of 65. I want to claim my 120 years of life's limit talked about in ancient Jewish literature.

This may need some editing and hopefully others show up with better explanations of CMA.

You are welcome. Until I am able to explain it to another I do not understand it. The above explanation is not what I will write 5 years from now hopefully. Good evening.

GaleHawkins wrote: »

FindingAmy77 wrote: »

I have had the same problems before. Preplanning what you eat, pre portioning out all packaged foods as much as you can, drink more water and last but not least exercise more so you can eat more. Also get rid of what is in your house that is a trigger food and add in more fiber and protein in your diet with meats and vegies and oatmeal, etc. those are your biggest three friends when eating at a deficit. They help keep you fuller and for longer.

Man that sounds like a lot of work. Why not just kill your cravings then there will be no trigger foods in the house? With 17 year olds in my house the trigger foods set on the same table I eat at. After two weeks of not eating ANY trigger foods (things containing sugars or any form of grains) the cravings just faded away so effectively there were no trigger foods in the house in my case.

Yesss! I'm starting to get to that happy place.

lisawinning4losing wrote: »

Same. The only thing a bowl of oatmeal does for me is spike my blood sugar, which is of course followed by a crash, meaning I'll be delirious long before lunch ever get there. It's like I'm injecting myself with a hunger serum. That's why I have whole eggs with full fat bacon. Keeps me full. But steel cut oats are still a lot more healthy than cereal, for people who can actually live on that kind of stuff.

I suppose it depends a lot on the serving size of the oats. If I have 70-100g dry oats I'll be stuffed for hours after breakfast, but it's not very calorie sparing. If I have a <50g portion that leaves me with more calories, I'll feel hungrier soon.

When I've had eggs for breakfast before, that always made me feel a little bit sick. So an eggy or fat-filled breakfast never worked for me.

Your patterns appear to be more mental than physical, more of a rebellious act against dieting. Your patterns show similarities with binge eating disorder. You don't necessarily have it, but dieting can trigger similar patterns, especially extreme dieting. 18 pounds in one month indicates a drastically low calorie allowance. No amount of macro manipulation is going to combat your body's cry for help against starvation. What is your daily intake and level of activity? Look into fixing your calories before you dive into the macro world.

Personally, I have been able to eliminate cravings entirely by... simply eating the foods I feel like eating. Some personality types do worse on restrictive dieting than others, and I appear to be one. If I'm not allowed to have something, it will be the only thing I think about and hunger for. If I know I must restrict something, and I'm only allowed just a little bit of it, it's never enough. If it's "the sabotaging kind" I will eat the whole jar in protest, even if I'm not a big fan (looking at you, peanut butter). So I decided, no more restricting and no more tiny portions. What do you know, it worked!

To allow for more calories to accommodate almost anything I want, I do intermittent fasting (restrict calories one day, eat maintenance the next + exercise calories back). I was pretty surprised that on fast days I would be wanting something and plan to eat it the next day, and when next day comes I'd be like "nah I'll pass". It's liberating to say no to something you know you love, not because you can't have it, but because you simply don't want it this time, or don't want a second serving because you are full. It's most liberating to eat 1 square of chocolate, even though you have the calories to fit in 10, simply because you only feel like having one square of chocolate (even if at another time you may end up having 10 without feeling guilty about it).

Long story short: first, fix your calories, then try out different strategies and see what works for you and what makes dieting easier for you. What makes dieting easier for me may not be what makes it easier for you. You are basically looking for the easiest possible way that would still allow for weight loss.